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Yaoi/slash approaches - A homoerotic subculture goes global is a 2002 article about yaoi and slashfanfiction. The first page shows artwork by P.L. Nunn from Shonen, An American Yaoi Anthology, Volume 1 and the article features an interview[1] with The Theban Band and two Theban Band manips.

When you start to dig into this subculture, you quickly realize you could do a doctoral dissertation on its layers of complexity, shading, and pop-culture shaping. With roots in Japanese manga (comics), Yaoi and slash are arguably the hottest things going in the thriving, underground queer lit and art scenes. So far, they've made barely a blip on mainstream radar, yet that low-flying invisibility seems about to change.

The article quotes Wikipedia for a difinition [sic] of slash and the author says that he first learned of slash fiction in December 2002 from a SF Bay Guardian piece titled "Harry Potter Gets Laid." He heeded the advice in the article and googled for slash, which lead him to Lex Luthor/Clark KentSmallville slash and that took him "into a whole new literary and artistic universe, raw, real and imaginative, scary and exciting."

Soon after he googled "slash LOTR" and he says that his "mind really blew. The first link took me to The Theban Band, creators of the most popular slash art on the Web, devoted primarily to The X-Files and LOTR." About their fanart he says it "walks a fine line between kitsch illustration and fine art."